Palm Beach County claims it owns trash, burns it for energy
Woman claims county shut her worm business down to trash private competition
A Florida woman's worm farm was shutdown after local officials sent her a letter claiming she was breaking the law regarding trash, which the government says it owns.
A business owner in Palm Beach County, Florida, where the government owns the trash, said officials forced her to cease operations after discovering she was collecting local waste and feeding it to her worms.
"So my business Let it Rot collected food scraps and organic waste and then fed it to worms to make worm castings or worm poop," Mel Corichi, the worm farm and composting company's founder, told Fox News. "I was told by Palm Beach County Solid Waste Authority that I was no longer allowed to run my business or offer my service because they own all the trash in Palm Beach County."
The entrance to the Let it Rot compost farm in Palm Beach County. (Courtesy: Mel Corichi)
Let It Rot was "established to alleviate a small portion of organic waste from the local landfill and generate high quality, all natural, alternatives to fertilizers and pesticides," according to its website. The company practiced vermicomposting, which involves worms eating food scraps and excreting high-quality fertilizer, and partnered with the local food bank to recycle its scraps.
"In August of 2023, I did my final pickup route," Corichi, the self-proclaimed "Worm Queen," told Fox News. "I hand-delivered cancelation notices to all of my customers and explained that their trash is property of Palm Beach County, and I'm not allowed to offer this service anymore."
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The solid waste authority first sent Corichi a cease-and-desist letter in April 2022. It alleged Corichi was running a waste management facility and was collecting, transporting and diverting waste under the agency's control.
"Food Waste is a Solid Waste … and is subject to the Authority's flow control powers," the letter reviewed by Fox News said. It added that the Palm Beach County Solid Waste Act "grants the Authority sole flow control authority for managing solid waste in Palm Beach County."
"I worked with my customers to divert organic materials into a little bucket that I then collected and used to feed my worms," Corichi said. "At no point during this process did I think that any of the material I was really working with was considered trash. It was a valuable resource for my operation and a feedstock for my livestock as a farmer."
The agency threatened to fine Corichi "$500 a day for every day I kept working or operating my composting business," she told Fox News.
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Corichi would supply her customers with buckets to preserve their organic waste, like food scraps. She would then pick up the full buckets and use the waste to feed her worms. (Courtesy: Mel Corichi)
A Palm Beach County Solid Waste Authority rule states, "All Solid Waste generated in the County is the property of the Authority, and must be delivered to an Authority Solid Waste Management Facility, or a Designated Disposal Facility."
An agency spokesperson pointed Fox News to a post claiming "misinformation" was circulating about the authority's "ownership of solid waste" and clarified that "once food waste leaves the property it is generated on destined for a solid waste management function, which includes composting, it must be delivered to the Authority."
"I tried to explain to them that I'm not a waste processing facility, that I'm a worm farmer, that I'm an agriculture entity, and the waste that I work with I use to feed my livestock," Corichi told Fox News. "I was still told that the semantics of what I was doing really didn't matter."
"At the end of the day, the collection of organic waste and transportation of it to another location for processing kind of stuck me in this position as being a waste and sanitation business and that businesses like mine weren't allowed to operate in Palm Beach County," she continued.
Red wrigglers, white worms and other earthworms are commonly used for vermicomposting. (Andia/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The real issue, Corichi believes, is that her business took garbage that the county burns to create energy.
"The sort of trash that they burn for energy is the same organic material that I was collecting to feed my worms," she told Fox News.
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The solid waste authority operates multiple waste-to-energy plants within the county, which together process enough waste annually to power 85,000 homes, according to the authority's website. The waste authority's cease-and-desist didn't mention energy production.
Additionally, the blog post the agency spokesperson flagged said "diversion of food waste … has the potential to undermine the financial stability" of the authority's system.
At its peak, Let it Rot served over 150 customers, Corichi said. (Courtesy: Let it Rot)
"No business, large or small, is authorized to compost food waste in the County as a competing entity," it reads.
Corichi started an online petition in September to give county residents a choice in how their waste is processed. It had just under 3,600 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.
"I'm not sure how long that may take or where that's going, but I'm continuing to advocate for new laws here, and I hope that there's a way for me to get back to worming," she said.
Since shutting her operation in August, Corichi has begun studying to be an insurance broker. To watch her full interview, click here.
Ramiro Vargas contributed to the accompanying video.
